Oooohhhh Betty! Super snake has keepers quaking

Atomic Betty, as she's known, is a 14-year-old, 6.5m articulated python - the only snake in the world considered a true "man eater''.

The powerful python was due for her annual weigh-in this week at the Australian Reptile Park, the Daily Telegraph reported.

It took six keepers to catch and bag the enormous snake - considered the most dangerous animal at the park, more so than the resident 5m crocodiles - inside its enclosure before it was weighed, tipping the scales at a whopping 139kg.

Native to South-east Asia, reticulated pythons are the world's largest snake and can grow to 8m with a life expectancy of about 30 years.

Atomic Betty is believed to be the largest snake in Australia having grown to 6.5m after being imported from the US in 2001.

Her diet consists of three to four 25kg goats a year.

Terra Australis boasted griffins, reindeer and sea monsters

Griffins, lions, giant snakes, reindeer - not to mention fierce-looking sea serpents swimming in the coastal waters - all figured in the imaginations of early cartographers who put pen to paper to map Australia.

Not to mention the residents - some imagined them to be one-legged freaks, known as sciapods, who used their over-sized foot for shade from the relentless sun (well, they got the sun part right!), others mer-people who preferred the warm waters to the dry land. And considering this country's preoccupation with the amber liquid, perhaps they got the legless bit right too!

The Land Down Under was truly a potential wonderland of exotic species and foreign civilisations, as the following maps and books testify:

Map of Australia by de Jode 1593

This map ‘Novae Guineae Forma, & Situs’ was part of a major work entitled ‘Speculum Orbis Terrarum’. Initiated by Gerard de Jode (1509 – 1591), a Dutch born cartographer, engraver and publisher who died in Belgium leaving the atlas uncompleted, the map was completed by his son Cornelis de Jode (1568 – 1600) two years after his father’s death in 1593.

Rare Sydney book collection

A collection of rare books on the mythical great southern land of Terra Australis have been put up for sale in Sydney, the ABC reports.

Hordern House bookstore is selling the 127 European maps and books, including early maps of Australia and the first record of the Southern Cross constellation.

The existence of the mega-continent was eventually disproved by explorers such as Britain's James Cook. But not before it provided rich fodder for the imagination among European artists and scholars.

Hordern House director Derek McDonnel says the collection is valued at up to $4 million, with some individual items expected to sell for more than $165,000.

"You could buy a 1480s edition of Sir John Mandeville from the very first couple of decades of printing. John Mandeville, one of the amazing early travellers to the east. That would cost you $165,000," Mr McDonnel said. "Or you could buy one of the theorical books about 'Is there or isn't there a southern continent?' for $3,000."

Mr McDonnel says some of the images are spectacular.

"We have the imaginings of strange 16th century artists wondering what people might look like down on the southern continent," he said. "They image creatures like a sciapod, who is a fellow whose foot has evolved into an enormous sunshade to shield him from the sun."

Snakes alive! Man-eating reptiles online

WARNING: graphic images follow!

My brother-in-law thoughtfully sent an email to me today with the following pictures, accompanied by text warning me to "never fall asleep or get drunk in the jungle!".

If this is what can happen, duly noted!

But seriously, do these pictures genuinely show a human corpse inside a large snake? Or is it merely a clever photoshop chop job? And what's more, can giant snakes really eat people? The jury seems to be out on the last question...

I'm not 100% sure, but these photos look like they could be of a Reticulated Python, a native of several Asian countries (including Sumatra/Indonesia, hence why I was sent the email) a species rather fond of constricting their prey until dead.

And just because we're on a 'snake eats man' roll, check out these pictures from the general same neck of the woods. These ones have been deemed fake by some quarters, but no one has been able to entirely rule out the story told by these pictures...

Giant snake - a real reptile or herp hoax?

Whoa! Is this the biggest snake you have ever seen? According to the email that arrived in our inbox a few hours ago, it's apparently a King Brown or 'Mulga' snake - which can, for the doubters out there, grow as big as three metres - but is it legit?

Pseudechis australis is a species of venomous snake found in Australia. It is one of the longest venomous snakes in the world and the second longest in Australia. Despite one of its common names, King Brown, it is part of the Pseudechis (black snake) genus.

We received this picture in an email that declared it was a Queensland native (is that possibly sugar cane, a staple Qld crop, growing in the background?).

But it also made the Hunter news in NSW recently, where it was claimed local road workers at Branxton flushed out the monster while road work was underway. Branxton is just outside Cessnock and is the gateway to most of the Hunter regions famous wineries.

And as far afield as America, where bigger is always better, they're claiming the snake as their own, a scaly refugee from the Mississippi floods no less!

So is this photo real or photoshopped?

The folks over at www.hoax-slayer.com seem to think it is a fake, as do the folk at the Australian Reptile Park on the NSW Central Coast (not far from the Hunter).

Update: This just in - a well respected herpetologist friend of the CFZ has poured cold water on this giant snake. "This is not genuine as King Browns don’t grow this big ANYWHERE!!! Also when I look carefully I can see certain unevenness and lumps along the body that indicate that this is not real or alive, Be interesting to know the background on this one!"

Wonambi - the rainbow serpent?

The Rainbow Serpent of Aboriginal lore created the mountains, controlled the sun and haunted precious life-giving waterholes across Australia's arid expanse. It was also a protector of the Aboriginal people and a punisher for those who transgressed its sacred laws.

But there was also a real giant snake that fits the Rainbow Serpent bill - the Wonambi aka Wonambi naracoortensis - which lived during the Pleistocene Ice Age period. Wonambi was a non-venomous snake that killed its prey by constriction.

And it's entirely possible - in fact highly likely - that this flesh-and-blood super snake was in part the inspiration for the rich mythology of the Rainbow Serpent.

The enormous reptile grew to 5-6m in length and boasted a 30cm girth and weighed in at around 50kg, making it a most formidable predator of the megafauna world.

Today the closest snake in size would be the 'Scrub Python' aka Amethystine Python (Morelia amethistina), which can grow up to an impressive 5.5m-8.5m in length (about 28ft - the latter an exceptional size rather than the norm).

The Amethystine isn't only indigenous to Australia - it can be found in the jungles of neighbouring Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, and feeds on birds, fruit bats, rats, possums, and other small animals. Larger Australian specimens will catch and eat wallabies, waiting by creek and river banks for prey seeking drinking water. 

Not unlike its distant relative Wonambi, which also haunted waterholes, waiting for hapless animals and human children to wander down for a swim or a drink before it struck.